Bottom line - at your weight with those sails, you do not need the iS 145. I have a 133 and from a slalom perspective that is the biggest I would go. The 145 seems IMHO more related to the previous Free Formula and F-Type and will feel a very different board than the 133.

I previously owned a Free Formula which was an absolute joy to sail with 9-10.5 meter sails, but I would not consider sticking a 7.5 in it (although I accept its perfectly possible)

Early planing differences will be almost negligible - top speed and control of 133 will be superior to 145 on all points of sail. You can easily get a 9.5 on the 133, so unless you want to go even bigger you don&#39;t need the 145

There is no doubt that the iSonic (for instance in comparison with a similar size Fanatic) planes a little later. The joy of the board comes at the top end when it remains controllable for much longer.

To get you planing a little earlier don&#39;t move the mastfoot back! If anything move it forward to keep the board flatter for longer. The board has enormous sail carrying capacity, which means that the 9.5 is just about middle of its range. I stick my mastfoot slightly forward of the mid-point with my 9.4 lightning, and about in the middle with the 8.2 Redline ( I wouldn&#39;t stick a smaller sail on it).

Once it is planing its stays there for some time and its use of apparent wind is beautiful. The trick is to get there, and this will require developing your pumping technique. When you spot a little gust, point the board slightly further downwind and work those arms and legs.

As regards to the footstraps, you can play around with their location on the rails a bit with the existing holes and I found that there are (for me) positions that work better than others. My backstrap is back as far as possible and my front strap forward as far as possible, but then I am quite tall. As with any slalom board it requires a bit of commitment to get to the backstrap. The key here is mast foot pressure. When you are about to put your backfoot in, pull down on your mast hand so that you load the mastfoot and front foot. This will allow you to free up your backfoot without going up wind.

Don&#39;t mess with extra holes, its not necessary! I am a size 12UK (46/7) and I can sail this board comfortablly. Just make the straps nice and big.

- Inland small waterreservoir (1km*1km, but based 15m above the surrounding area)
- 10-14 knots (but also sometimes only 6-8 knots)
- gun booster 8.7m² which is perfect with the 48cm stockfin

I tried to set the mastbase more in front, but I had to much problems with a diving nose in the nowind periods. With the mastbase more at the back I could relax a little bit more and get some more height non-planning untill the wind came back.

My problems with the back feetstraps were solved, because I used my summer surfshoes instead of my winterboots (1mm neoprene against 5mm neoprene with watertemp. around 9°C. :| ).

I used my new helmetcamera, but it switched off on the water and no material left on the memorycard. Hopefully next time more luck, but hey it was a nice, sunny cruisingday. B)